In the United States, many coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures are performed on patients annually. Each of these procedures may include one or more graft vessels which are hand sutured. Until recently, coronary artery bypass procedures have been performed with the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass while the heart is stopped with cardioplegia and the surgery is performed on an exposed, stationary heart. Interest in developing a minimally invasive CABG procedure is increasing.
A few pioneering surgeons are now performing minimally invasive procedures in which a coronary artery bypass is performed through a small incision in the chest wall, sometimes on a beating heart, i.e., without heart-lung bypass and cardioplegia.
Until recently all bypass graft procedures have been performed by hand suturing the tiny vessels together with extremely fine sutures under magnification. There is a need (which is addressed by the present invention) for methods and apparatus useful for performing anastomosis during CABG surgery on a beating heart, without hand-suturing.
The present invention can be used to perform end-to-end anastomosis (in which the open end of a vessel or other organ is attached to (and in fluid communication with) the open end of another vessel or other organ without hand-suturing, end-to-side anastomosis (in which the open end of one vessel or other organ is attached to the side wall of a second organ in fluid communication with an incision or other orifice in the second organ's side wall) without hand-suturing, or side-to-side anastomosis (in which incisions or other orifices in the side walls of two vessels or other organs are aligned in fluid communication with each other and the aligned tissue is attached together) without hand-suturing.